Monday, July 19, 2010

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Superstitions . . . Belief, Compulsion, or Tradition?

There is a fine line between being overly superstitious and being obsessive-compulsive. Having grown up in a household from a different culture, some superstitions were part of tradition. Everyone knows there are many things in the Chinese culture that are considered to be lucky, but did you know there are things that are considered very unlucky? For example, it is considered unlucky to wash your hair on Chinese New Year because you are washing all the lucky spirits away that are hovering and watching over you.

I have never been a believer in too many superstitions. I am, however, a little obsessive compulsive. I only can turn around one way while in the shower. I use to have to chew my food in an equal number of bites on each side of my mouth. Luckily a painful toothache forced me to chew on only one side and cured me of this. It is amazing that this habit could be broken because I had been doing both those things for as long as I can remember . . . even during my childhood. So, did I think something bad was going to happen if I deviated from these patterns? I would say no, but by doing these things I felt safer, if that makes sense.

After watching the pilot episode of AMC's Rubicon, I felt like my own quirks were tiny compared to that of David Hadas, one of the first episode's key characters. I am pretty sure that anyone who does not live with me, may not know about my quirks, but Hadas' are very apparent to those around him in his daily life 24/7. One of his most blatant superstitions is about the unlucky number 13. He would avoid it like one would avoid deadly poison in everything he did. For example, he would go out of his way to avoid stepping on a 13 that was painted on the ground. I am so glad that my quirks are not as extreme as his. Life is complicated enough without adding all these excessive rules to live around.

AMC’s newest original drama series “Rubicon” debuts on Sunday, August 1 with a special two-hour premiere from 8–10pm ET.

If you find the above trailer intriguing, you can watch the 1-hour pilot episode on AMCtv.com .